How to Keep Yourself Motivated During a Diet

The proportion of the population suffering from obesity has greatly increased as a result of increased availability and demand for fast food and other types of junk food. Obesity is a risk factor for many diseases including cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and hypertension, among others.

Therefore, it’s important to increase awareness about obesity and encourage people to go on healthy diets. However, the process is easier said than done. Dieting is no easy task! It’s very easy to relapse and lose motivation along the way. Here are a few ways to keep yourself motivated during a diet:

Keep reminding yourself of the end goal.

Remember, the goal is to make yourself healthy at the end of the day. Your health is more important than any food in the world! You need to lose weight in order to stay away from diseases like hypertension and diabetes mellitus which can greatly lower your quality of life, especially if they’re left uncontrolled. Think about it, is it better to lose weight right now or suffer from diseases later on?

Flavors are temporary

The only reason we crave junk food so much is that it’s usually tasty. However, ask yourself this question: how long do you really feel the taste of junk food? It’s only there until the food is in your mouth, which means it will be there for a maximum of 20 minutes. Even during this time, your taste buds get used to the flavor and send fewer impulses to your brain because they get adapted to the taste. So, for only a few minutes of pleasure, are you willing to ruin your diet and eat unhealthy food? Eating junk food once in a while is fine, but consuming it every day isn’t!

Reward yourself when you reach a goal

After successfully completing two weeks of your diet, reward yourself with a dress from your favorite shop. Set small goals and reward yourself by getting something when you reach every goal. However, be sure not to keep junk food in your rewards because it may make you relapse and quit your diet! Rewarding yourself will give you an incentive to diet and it will keep you motivated toward the cause.

Avoid stress eating

While we’re in stress, we tend to think irrationally. However, don’t give up on your diet even while you’re under stress. Remember, eating junk food will not take away your stress or make anything better, if not worse.

I’ve seen many girls dive into a tub of ice-cream after a bad breakup. If you too are a habitual stress-eater, then you need to correct yourself and remove the misconception that eating while you’re in stress will make things better for you! Once you have addressed this issue, you’ll have a pretty stable diet.

Chart your meals

Noting down all your meals every day will help you keep track of your progress. It will also prevent you from getting off-track because you wouldn’t want junk food to come up on the chart. Moreover, if you’ve progressed during the first few days of your diet and restrained from eating junk food, then you’ll be more motivated to continue with your diet and avoid junk food for the remaining diet period.

Exercise

Exercising without dieting and dieting without exercise usually do not go hand-in-hand. If you only exercise, but don’t diet, there’s no point because burning calories are way harder than consuming them. On the other hand, if you diet without exercising, you’re very likely to lose motivation. Exercise at the beginning of each day to stay motivated. Whenever you have an encounter with junk food the rest of the day, you’ll remind yourself that you worked hard during the morning and you don’t want to ruin that with some temporary indulgence.

Count your calories

Counting your calories during a diet is very important because it helps you keep track of your progress. Calorie counters are available on the internet for every food item now. All you have to do is search for the number of calories in the food you’re consuming and then note it down on your record notebook. This will help you keep your calories under control.

So, what are you waiting for? Try the tips above to keep yourself motivated while you’re on a diet. At the end of the day, you need to have strong willpower and self-control in order to stay consistent with your diet. However, the results are worth it so keep dieting until you get your desired results!